Generally the western story of when the war started in Donbass focuses on Igor Strelkov. It doesn’t help that he himself supported this interpretation, famously claiming that ‘it was I who pulled the trigger of war’. But is it not natural for a military adventurist to overplay his own individual significance? In fact, many more actors were involved. The story begins just as maidan reaches its bloody victory in Kiev.
On the 20th of February in the village of Korsun’-Shevchenkovskiy in the Cherkassy area (beneath Kiev), armed maidanites stopped anti-maidan protestors in buses that were returning from Kiev to Crimea. The anti-maidanites were beaten on camera. The post-annexation Crimean government claimed on the 6th of April that 30 Crimeans disappeared and were never found, alleging the murder of seven. This incident was later named by Putin as a cause for Russian intervention into Crimea.
On the 23rd of February, residents of Donetsk guarded their regional administration from feared Ukrainian nationalists. The video of this went viral across the internet[1]. Answering questions of BBC journalists, locals said they wanted to prevent what happened in Kiev from happening there and cursed the Yanukovych government for failing them. The maidan protestors were protected by police from the anti-maidan protest, which was many times larger.
The same BBC article had this to say about the complicated relation of local Donetsk authorities to the new maidan government:
"In life, it's like a sauna: you can sweat it out, or you can just relax," replies Donetsk region governor Andrey Shishatsky shortly before the rally when asked how he will work with the new authorities.
And while I ponder his allegory, he explains that he will primarily work with local authorities, as in the current situation, he needs to ensure order in the region.
It is evidently quite difficult for the Donetsk leadership to answer this question, which they are constantly asked.
The government in the country has changed, and there is an awkwardness — recognizing the Kiev government in Donetsk is not possible for political reasons, the issue of seceding from Ukraine is not officially raised, and focusing on the needs of ordinary people is hindered by the state apparatus — the governor and the government of Donbass are still subordinate to the central authorities.
The head of the Donetsk Ministry of Internal Affairs, Roman Romanov, when asked by the BBC, did acknowledge that he is subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. He said this with visible effort.
Romanov had a lot of work on Sunday — at noon, the opposition submitted a request for a rally near the regional administration, and an opposition rally at the regional administration in Ukraine is called "Maidan."
"Maidan" — a word that in Donetsk, merely spoken aloud, can provoke unrest — something the regional leadership clearly wants to avoid.
On February 27, one-time local politician and small businessman Pavel Gubarev harshly criticized the Yanukovych government and maidan at an anti-maidan meeting in front of the city council of Donetsk. This was his first public appearance. He would later become ‘People’s Governor of Donetsk Region’. This was the first time that he publicly stated that there had been an armed coup in Kiev and questioned the legitimacy of the new government. He also went inside the city council that day and repeated these statements without meeting resistance. At this point, he advocated a referendum on whether Ukraine should be a federative or confederative state, or whether Donbass should join Russia. As he said in a May interview, in late February he still considered negotiations with Kiev possible, though this changed later.
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